I Have Lived A Thousand Years

My previous post on Forgotten Fire reminds me of this memoir-esque novel, written by Livia Bitton-Jackson, who was a survivor of Auschwitz.

Thirteen year-old Elli Friedman recounts her life as a victim of the Nazi persecution of Jews during the 1940s and how she and her mother survive despite unthinkable horrors. The reader watches as Elli's life changes from having typical teenage worries about school and boys to learning how to adapt to life as a prisoner denied her human rights. In a nutshell, this book is, as the author states in the forward, about never giving up.

One message that Bitton-Jackson seems to hone in on throughout this work centers around the concept of identity. She suggests that individuality and diversity are fundamental human rights. Her observation is that those prisoners who allowed their identities to be completely stripped away were the ones who were least likely to survive the concentration camps.

Sometimes when I hear the English-only or anti-gay marriage political rhetoric, I cannot help but wonder if this lack of tolerence for linguistic and social diversity somehow falls into this same mindset trap that motivated the greater German attitude during that era. I don't know if this notion is appropriate or not given the gravity of the historical events that transpired. You tell me.